Dear Ron
Anil raises a very important question that should not be dismissed with a mere
belief. I suggest that you are doing Biochar a great disservice by persisting
on "beating the Climate Change Drum", while disregarding the circumstances
where biochar additions to the soil will actually benefit the Farmer and
Grower. Biochar usage will escalate dramatically in circumstances where biochar
can be clearly and palpably demonstrated as being cost effective to the Farmer
and Grower. In my opinion, Biochar usage will virtually collapse, if its use
depends on the Carbon Credit Payment incentives actually received by the Farmer
or Grower.
The general state of the World Economies, and the complexity of system
administration is such that it is extremely unlikely that Carbon Credit
Payments will actually reach the Farmer or Grower to a degree that such
payments will encourage the use of biochar.
Furthermore, I feel it is irresponsible to promote increased usage of Biochar
in Agriculture, without knowing the circumstances where biochar additions will
actually be of benefit to the Farmer and Grower. Some of the Farmers that
people like Anil, Dr. Reddy, Dr. Karve, and Peter Ongele wish to help are
literally one crop away from starvation; a "disappointing yield" or a crop
failure can literally have lethal consequences. Sadly, all too many "Biochar
Promoters" infer that "Biochar = Terra Preta". Evidence I have from personal
tests, confirmed by others, shows that "Biochar Only", in a disadvantaged soil
will DECREASE plant growth. However, others have indeed shown that under
certain circumstances, biochar appears to be beneficial to the Farmer or
Grower, PROVIDING that other soil amendments needed by the soil are added at
the same time. Such "other soil amendments" or additives could include:
* Organic matter
* Manure
* Fertilizer
* Compost
* Urine
* Microbes
* Sugar
* Silt and Clay
* Etc
Biochar alone is NOT a panacea for the Farmer or Grower. While it can be PART
of a solution in some cases, it can only result in an improvement if it brings
something to the soil, that the soil lacks. For example, there is no point in
adding charcoal to a soil that is deficient in organic matter, in that charcoal
is NOT organic matter... it is "mineralized carbon" that originated from
biomass, and it cannot feed the soil life-forms necessary for plant growth.
In my opinion, Anil's question is extremely relevant, and it deserves to be
answered in a responsible manner... with evidence from competently structured
and implemented tests, rather than being dismissed with an unsupported belief.
Using a soil that is otherwise "good", with the single exception that it is
deficient in organic matter, the tests should be structured to determine if the
Farmer or Grower gets superior growth results under the following test
conditions:
A: A given amount of organic matter is added to the soil per square meter.
or
B: The SAME amount of organic matter per square meter is charred to produce
biochar, and the resulting biochar is added to the test plot.
Note that this simple test will only prove the difference between organic
matter and biochar... it does not answer the question posed by Anil. Given that
an "Organic Fertilizer" is "Organic matter plus a "package of additives"", the
above simple test could be expanded in a manner where identical "additive
packages" were added to the test plots in the "A Plots" (organic matter) and "B
Plots" (biochar from the same amount of organic matter).
Kevin
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Larson
To: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Cc: Discussion of biomass cooking stoves
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 7:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Char vs. fertilizer
Anil (cc list)
I believe Biochar will do the better job of removing excess atmospheric CO2
and of improving soil productivity over the long term.
Ron
Sent from my iPad
On Nov 2, 2011, at 2:38 AM, nari phaltan <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Stovers,
What will be a better strategy for agricultural residues: to produce char
or organic fertilizer?
Is there any quantitative studies done for both value production and
reducing environmental considerations?
Both char and organic fertilizer will go towards enriching the soil.
Cheers.
Anil
--
Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)
Tambmal, Phaltan-Lonand Road
P.O.Box 44
Phaltan-415523, Maharashtra, India
Ph:91-2166-222396/220945
e-mail:[email protected]
[email protected]
http://www.nariphaltan.org
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